We interrupt the constant barrage of negative local hockey stories to bring you a feel good piece on the “true American sport(so sayeth the author)….”.

Last night College Station, Texas was host to one of the great college basketball games in recent memory. It took the allotted forty minutes plus five, yes FIVE overtimes for a winner to be determined between #25 Baylor and host #16 Texas A+M before Baylor was able to pull off the 116-110 upset.

What’s even more amazing is the fact that Baylor is even ranked and with a 16-2 record. Five years ago this program was on the verge of being eliminated amidst a scandal which involved the murder of one of the players(Patrick Dennehy) by his own teammate(Carlton Dotson) and the subsequent coverup by the coaching staff in an attempt to portray Dennehy as a drug dealer. Coach Dave Bliss left in disgrace and with players free to transfer the Bears lost plenty of talent including John Lucas Jr.(Okla St.) and eventual SEC Player of the Year Lawrence Robert(Miss. St.)

It looked bleak, and for a program that hadn’t made “The Tournament” since 1988 it was a low point especially for an historically mediocre hoops school such as Baylor. To be blunt, until last week Baylor hadn’t been nationally ranked since 1969.

In stepped Scott Drew, the hero of Valparaiso’s run to the Sweet 16 in 1998 to clean things up. A herculean task it was dealing with multiple NCAA sanctions as he had to play two seasons with only half his team on scholarship, and yet another season was played without any nonconference games. Drew’s first four seasons in Waco resulted in a 36-69 record(12-52 BigXII play) and only last season did the Bears get out of the opening round of the Big XII tournament.

Which brings us to this season and last night, Baylor began the season with some respectable road wins over Wichita State and Notre Dame to gain some notice that things were changing for the better. Yet for the most part the team was racking up the W’s at the expense of some very mediocre competition…three SWAC teams, Brown, Florida A+M….Wayland Baptist…is that Division I??? And its only game against a ranked opponent was a close home loss to #6 Wazzu.
A road trip to Texas A+M would be a good guage for the the progress of the Bears.

One longest game in the history of the Big Eight/XII Conference later we had our answer and with that, the return of a program five seasons ago left for dead as the win put them off to a start not seen in Waco since the Truman administation. This will be a team worth rooting for regardless of how the rest of the season plays out for them.

Click here for game recap and box score.

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